I arrived there at 10:30 a.m. Catarina Ferreira had already lost the first set 6-0. I stayed there to watch the rest of the match. Catarina didn’t play badly, but missed too many returns and made some doubles faults, but when they were playing from the baseline, things were more equilibrated. Virginie played well, moving Catarina from side to side; she made some forehand unforced errors but was always in control of the match. In the end of this match, I went to watch Keothavong and Groenefeld, but just before I saw Gaudio and Zabaleta practising and saw some points of Birnerova against Tamaela. In the moment I was sitting in the stands, Eva’s coach told me to make silence because they were playing but I didn’t even make any noise, in the 3 or 4 points I saw, he was always coaching Eva. Anne vs Anna-Lena was the best match of the day, from what I saw. When I started watching it was 6-2 3-4 for Anne. The match was always very close. Anne has a great forehand and Anna Lena a great backhand, but their other shots are also fine. Both were hitting very hard, but Anna Lena was more consistent, that’s why she won the match. In the beginning of the third set, she lost focus and I thought Anne could win it, but she came back nicely and Anne started to make more mistakes. Groenefeld also used the drop shot very well in a couple of points. After this match, I found two friends and we watched some Portuguese guys getting their asses kicked . As I wanted to watch Ana Nogueira, I went to the bathroom and then instead of going with them again, I went to centre court . She and Cristina were still practising. Ana started well, but the points were always very close, although Ana was more aggressive and was closing the points very well. When Cristina attacked she looked good, I don’t know why she didn’t attack more, most of the times she was always waiting for Ana to make the final attack and make the winner or the unforced error. At 4-3 in the first set for Cristina, my friend called me to have lunch, I didn’t want to, but I said yes. I went with him and the other and I ate pretty fast, so I could see Ana again. As they only wanted to see mans and they were eating slowly, I went to make a phone call and stayed in the Centralito (which is near the place where we were eating) watching Magali De Lattre against Rita Kuti Kis, it was already 6-0 2-0 and Magali was playing awful. Magali plays exactly the same style of Alexandra Stevenson, although she doesn’t come to the net. She has a big serve, very powerful groundstrokes and every shot she hits she tries to make a winner but misses 95% of the time. The rallies didn’t have more than 3 or 4 shots. Rita has lost some weight and looks a lot better and a bit more faster. She didn’t have to do much, but when Magali hit short balls, Rita immediately came with the winner. Even if Magali would have put more balls in, I think Rita wouldn’t have trouble with the match because she looks in good form (finally ). At 5-0 in the second set I went to Ana’s match again. It was 5-3 in the second set for Ana and she closed it with an ace. During the break I watched a bit of other matches. Just saw a couple of points of Babsi Schawrtz and then watched a bit more of Julia Schruf, who was looking playing very aggressive tennis and outplaying Nuria, who wasn’t playing badly, but just didn’t have an answer. Then, I came back to see Ana again. She started well in the third and was beginning to look better than Cristina, at 3-1 Ana was down 0-40 on her serve but with some good serves won that game and after that Cristina gave up. She tried to go for winner but made lots of unforced errors and Ana closed the match with 6-1 in the third. After this, I wanted to see other woman matches but as I found my friends again I went with them to watch the mans. After a while, they didn’t want to watch them anymore and went to play snooker. I went with them. I didn’t want to play (to tell the truth I play too badly ) and I got tired of watching them play so I went to see if Katia’s match had already started. And it had, but it was just 1-0 for Silvija. Katia doesn’t have any outstanding shot, but she is consistent and that was enough to cause Silvija trouble. In the first set Silvija didn’t make too much unforced errors and played well. Both players were trying to move each other, trying to force the error or a short ball for the winner. Katia was coming more to the net, but Silvija made some great passing shots. In the second set, Katia kept playing at the same level and Silvija made more unforced errors. Some friends of Katia were watching this match and were so happy with her perfomance that when she made 2-1, they screamed her name and she smiled to them. She was relaxed, because she knew she had nothing to lose. I forgot to say one important thing about Katia, she is very hot! She was very close of winning the second set and constructing the points very well, but made some silly mistakes on the decision points that cost her the set and the match. Silvija was lucky about Katia’s inexperience or otherwise I believe she would have lost today, she will have to be more focused tomorrow if she wants to keep going in this tournament. After this match, I watched Maret vs Lubomira. It was 2-0 in the second set for Maret and she won all of the other games. Maret has a beautiful forehand witch caused Lubomira lots of trouble. Besides that, Lubomira was too inconsistent and Maret dominated most of the points. I forgot to say that I saw some points of Pastikova against Husarova and both players were looking good, I don’t know why Janette lost so easily, but Michaela really did seem on fire.

I hope you enjoyed this report. I won’t go tomorrow, because it’s Easter and I’ll be with my family; but I’m still in negotiations with my mom to go at least one day to the main draw

Rita has lost some weight and looks a lot better and a bit more faster. She didn’t have to do much, but when Magali hit short balls, Rita immediately came with the winner. Even if Magali would have put more balls in, I think Rita wouldn’t have trouble with the match because she looks in good form (finally )